Colon Turns In a Cool Effort

Bartolo Colon has pitched plenty of games in Cleveland in April and October, when the wind whipping off Lake Erie turns Jacobs Field into an icebox, so the Angel right-hander wasn’t about to let an unseasonably cool and rainy 52-degree afternoon affect him Sunday.

With Colon taming the elements and sending a chill through Texas’ torrid bats, the gloomy conditions at the Ballpark in Arlington hardly matched the Angels’ mood, which brightened considerably after a 7-2 victory over the Rangers in front of 18,209.

The Rangers had put a Texas-sized whupping on Angel starters Ramon Ortiz and John Lackey and a handful of relievers Friday and Saturday, racking up 24 runs and 36 hits, including six home runs, to win the first two games of a four-game series.

But Colon, sporting short sleeves, delivered the kind of skid-stopping performance teams expect from their aces, limiting the Rangers to two runs -- one earned -- and seven hits in eight innings, striking out five and walking one.

Colon didn’t seem to have his radar-gun-popping, 98-mph heater, but he had pinpoint control of his fastball, pitched effectively inside and kept Texas off-balance with his slider and changeup in an efficient performance in which he threw 104 pitches, 73 of them strikes.

“The way they were swinging the bats the last couple of days, they were on everything,” Angel designated hitter Tim Salmon said of the Rangers. “I don’t know if we necessarily have been pitching the best or making a lot of mistakes... but Bartolo really took the thunder out of their sticks.”

Colon also provided a much-needed respite for the Angel bullpen, which combined to throw 19 1/3 innings in the team’s first five games.

Relievers Scot Shields, who threw 47 pitches Saturday, and Ben Weber, who threw 36 pitches Saturday, were not available Sunday, and Manager Mike Scioscia was hesitant to use middle reliever Kevin Gregg, who appeared in three of the first five games, and long reliever Aaron Sele, who threw 87 pitches Friday.

But in an odd twist, the Angels’ starting pitcher provided relief to the bullpen Sunday. Scioscia pulled Colon in favor of a fresh Francisco Rodriguez for the ninth, and the rest of the bullpen was not taxed.

“We would have been hurt today if we needed middle- or long-relief innings, so you can see why Bartolo is so important,” Scioscia said. “He was his own middle man, set-up man, and he could have been his own closer, but there was no need to extend him.”

Colon, who signed a four-year, $51-million deal last winter and now has two victories in his first two Angel starts, prides himself on being an ironman as well as a stopper.

“Usually in Chicago and Cleveland, I would ask the relievers jokingly, ‘Hey, you guys need a day off today?’ ” Colon said through an interpreter. “I asked Weber before the game today if he needed the day off, and he said, ‘Never.’ I felt good. I recognize the need [to pitch deep into games], especially considering what Texas did the first two games.”

Colon slipped a bit in the first when he gave up a double to leadoff batter Michael Young on an 0-and-2 pitch and a run-scoring single to Hank Blalock. But the Angels rallied with three runs in the second on consecutive singles by Troy Glaus, Jose Guillen, Tim Salmon and Jose Molina, and Adam Kennedy’s run-scoring fielder’s choice.

Kennedy’s error in the fourth led to an unearned run, as Texas trimmed the lead to 3-2, but the Angels widened the gap with three runs in the sixth, which included Vladimir Guerrero’s laser of a home run to center field, Garret Anderson’s double, Glaus’ single and Guillen’s run-scoring single.

Colon allowed only three baserunners from the fifth through eighth innings, snuffing out any chance of a Ranger comeback, and on a soggy afternoon Manager Buck Showalter described as “not a pitcher-friendly day,” Colon was no friend of the Rangers.

“He was going against one of the hottest lineups in baseball,” Scioscia said, “and he put the brakes on a tough skid.”